Getting Things Wrapped Up

The Field Report

With the central Illinois prairie covered with snow, Trent sat down in his warm office to look back and ahead. 2018 “was a decent year, but not a record-breaker. We had good weather and good production, but the markets were not friendly.” Trent continued by observing that the federal government shutdown has stopped USDA crop reports so the markets have no current information about final yield figures, export sales, status of various inventories, and similar information which ordinarily moves the market. Without the current reports, the markets are in a holding pattern, unsure of direction.

“I’m Ready To Get This Year Wrapped Up”

Trent Brandenburg wants to complete his soybean harvest and fall tillage to complete the outdoor part of this crop year. Marketing decisions and work on his implements in the machine shed continue all winter.

Trent is about a quarter done with his soybean harvest, with yields averaging 50-60 bushels per acre. Much of the crop has been too green to harvest, plus the much-needed fall rains have improved pod fill (the beans getting bigger in their pods) for increased yield. The killing frost before daybreak on Monday October 8 has stopped any further growth and made the stems of the bean plants softer and thus easier to combine. Trent does not anticipate much progress this week with rain forecast for most days.

Trent has completed his corn harvest with an average yield of about 125 bushels per acre. This is far below the yield of some recent crop years, but a still a crop size that would have been thought good not too many years ago. Most fall tillage on Trent’s farm ground was completed before the recent spate of rains. The freshly-tilled soil was thus able to absorb the rainfall better to help replace soil moisture lost in this year’s record drought.